Forge Nano’s Forge Battery selected for $100M award negotiation with US DOE to expand North Carolina Gigafactory

Forge Battery, the battery subsidiary of Forge Nano, Inc., announced it was selected for award negotiations of up to $100M in non-dilutive funding by the Department of Energy’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) to expand its North Carolina lithium-ion battery gigafactory production capacity to 3-gigawatt hours per year (GWh/year).

The $100M funding would be combined with $140M from Forge Battery to increase the Morrisville, NC facility’s production to match domestic battery demand. Forge Battery expects to produce commercial lithium-ion cells at 1 GWh/year starting in 2026 and expand the facility to 3 GWh/year.

Forge Battery’s Made-in-America cylindrical lithium-ion battery cells will be produced with a U.S.-dominant supply chain, with 90 percent of cell contents sourced within the United States. Forge Battery began shipping prototype A-Sample cells in bulk in July 2024 to current customers, who account for multiple GWh/year in confirmed off-take.

The Forge Battery “Gen 1.1. Supercell,” the company’s first commercial product, has a confirmed specific energy of 300 Wh/kg and will be undergoing cycle life testing for a variety of application-specific requirements for current and future customers. Forge Battery reports that it expects its A-Sample cells will meet industry standard lifetimes suitable for its intended target customer markets, which include electric trucks, off-highway vehicles, motorcycles, and aerospace and Department of Defense (DoD) applications.